Enterprise carried twelve Wildcats to Wake Island without an accompanying oiler. On returning to Pearl Harbor after the attack, the carrier had about half its fuel remaining, its cruisers about 30 percent, and its destroyers about 20 percent. Those figures left little margin for sustained combat steaming. A later Lexington strike against Wake was cancelled after the assigned oiler was sunk near Hawaii. The attempted approach to Rabaul required three oilers, showing how the support requirement grew with distance.
Notable Point · 21:35-22:53
Low fuel and the loss of an oiler limited early Pacific carrier raids
Enterprise's return from Wake and the loss of Lexington's assigned oiler show how fuel availability could constrain or cancel an operation.